Friday, 12 September 2014

Next Friday
(19th September) we will be holding a coffee morning in
Kettering for anyone in the area who is suffering from an asbestos related disease.
Of course, those attending are welcome to bring spouses, relatives, friends or
carers along, as they are also affected by the diseases in question. But for some time now, we at DAST have felt
aware that more support needs to be on offer to the loved ones. This is especially the case if they suffer
bereavement. Those left behind usually
contact us with the sad news, but we have no official services that we can
offer them, only our sympathy. We think
that this needs to change.

First of
all, we have secured a small grant from the Evan Cornish Foundation, which we
are going to delibrately use to support the bereaved. We are in the process of
organising a coffee morning for those affected, to be held next March. This will be held in Lincoln and the local
branch of Cruse Bereavement Care have agreed to come along and give a
presentation, then stay to handle any questions.

We have also
had some promising news from the Big Lottery Fund. For a good year now, we have been trying to
get through to the final stage of their grant application process – and we have
now finally achieved this. We are asking for a three year grant to employ a
bereavement support worker. They will
give initial telephone support as well as organising a befriending project and
a regular forum meeting. We have to submit some further information about this
proposal within the next couple of months, and we will hear early in 2015 if we
have been successful. Please keep all of
your fingers crossed that this bid is successful – it will mean direct help
from a trusted organisation for the predicted hundreds of people who will be
accessing our services over the coming years.